We can no longer use ignorance as an excuse for how we operate within the ARM industry. Regardless of if we are discussing a performance metric or a compliance metric if you respond with “I didn’t know,” “I don’t know,” or “how would I know,” it suggests to me that you cannot pull the data into a standard report; this is a recipe for disaster. Many collection agencies and collection law firms operate today without the ability to run the reports they need to run their business. In addition, they are unable to know if an operational or compliance measure is not working correctly or if an employee didn’t follow a procedure. Read More
Happy Holidays to all my peers in the Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) industry! With the tax season upon us, it is holiday season for businesses of every kind who will be marketing at the discretionary dollars consumers will be receiving from their 2015 tax refunds. Whether it is a furniture store or car dealership, companies are already bombarding consumers with incentives to cash in their tax refund while the getting is good. ARM companies are no different as we make tax season settlement offers, however with the billions of dollars of dormant judgement inventory in the market today shifting to garnishments may prove to be a more successful tax season strategy.
When you consider the lifecycle of a file, it is typically in the pre-judgment status for a very short period of time. On average, it takes 12 months from the placement date of a new file to reach a judgment status and that is being conservative. When you then take into account states like Arizona or Pennsylvania that have the shortest statue on judgments (at 4 years) compared to states like Illinois or Alabama that have the longest statue on judgments (20 years), a file is in the pre-judgment status for 5-25% of its lifecycle. Given how quickly a file progresses to judgment status, every law firm will have a surplus of dormant judgements to target this tax season. Read More
Data. It’s everywhere. Always has been. Centuries before anybody even dreamed of endless combinations of ones and zeros, early cultures were keeping track of livestock and trade transactions by using knots tied in rope or cutting notches on a stick. They were simple techniques, but they were the beginnings of what we now call “business data.”
The Evolution of Data
Over time, businesses have become more complex and systems for tracking business data have evolved as well. In the last century alone, accounting systems have gone from hand-written single-entry ledger books, to type-written balance sheets, to punch-card cash flow analysis, to today’s myriad of digital software applications, each providing a way to store the data your business collects. In 2015, it is estimated that 2.5 Quintillion bytes of data was created on a daily basis. The vast amount of business data available to companies today has been hard to comprehend and even harder to manage and analyze. Read More
